New FFC champ Filip Pejić very promptly reacted to Antun Račić’s call out. He claims Račić is not his priority now, but that he also intends to hold the FFC belt as long as they don’t take him back to the UFC, no matter what opponent he gets.

When asked what it feels like to be the new FFC champ, Filip explained:

“It feels great, but the impressions now settled and I’m back to the gym on Monday. My next task is to prove that I deserve this belt and that I’m the real champ.“

Pejić once again started the fight at a slower pace, just like he did at his previous FFC matches with Francisco Barrio and Slobodan Maksimović. He lost his UFC debut match for the same reason, which resulted in him not getting another chance in the world’s most famous Octagon.

“Honestly, I don’t think I started the match that cautiously when I fought Barrio or Limp. I just need a couple of minutes to catch the pace and focus. But when it comes to this fight I had additional pressure due to my last fight and it also blocked me mentally. However, after the first round I woke up, left it all behind and started fighting properly.”

Right after the match, fighters started to call out the new champ. One of the fighters was also FFC -66kg champ Antun Račić. Maro Perak announced that his Gladiator team is to return to the FFC, meaning that Račić could have new ambitions.

“Račić is not the only one who challenged me. Now they all call out my name and want to fight me. But what is interesting, most of them have many losses in the FFC or they’re not in the FFC at all but they want to fight for the title. I find it funny. Now all of the sudden they all claim they are better than me and they’re trying to get some attention. Račić had a lot of losses lately, so it’s not my priority to fight him at all. Last year I was supposed to fight for the title in Zagreb and noone wanted to fight me. Now that I have the belt, I’m hot stuff. Do not get me wrong, I will fight anyone who deserves the title fight. But I will keep the belt until I get back to the UFC.“

The experiment with bantam division might have cost him his UFC loss and Pejić now decided to fight in the -66kg division only.

“Dropping to bantam was bad decision, but this is now behind me and from now on I will only fight in -66kg division. This is something natural to me, I feel great and I can cause problems to all the fighters in that division.”